La Perouse Pinnacle

La Perouse Pinnacle is a steep basalt outcrop at French Frigate Shoals in the Pacific Ocean.

[1] Rising approximately 122 ft (37 m) above sea surface, it is the eroded plug of a shield volcano and caldera that formed 12 million years ago.

The Boussole mistook the pinnacle for the Astrolabe, but a last-minute course correction averted collision.

[2][8][9] In the 19th century, the whaling ship Rebecca, on a moonlit night, mistook La Perouse Pinnacle for a sailing vessel.

[10][11] In 1923, the Tanager expedition visited and made the first scientific determination of the pinnacle's basalt rock composition.